Amendment 47 foe sends racist e-mail to backer

Charming. The Post:

A former legal adviser to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, a union opposing the so-called right-to-work measure on the November ballot, sent an e-mail to the measure's co-author using a racial slur and profanity.

DeAngelo Starnes, who until recently was an associate general counsel for the UFCW Local 7, wrote to Amendment 47 co-author Ryan Frazier in August, after Frazier had sent a mass e-mail to Starnes and dozens of others. The e-mail was about an event the Aurora city councilman sponsors to help children receive school supplies.

Starnes replied to Frazier, saying, "You f------ sell-out. Why are you sending this to me?" according to an e-mail obtained by The Denver Post that was sent from Starnes' private account to Frazier's public e-mail account with Aurora. "Take me off your e-mail list, House N----."

Frazier replied: "Hey, no need for the ignorant language. We will take you off immediately. God bless you."

Starnes then replied: "Just keep bending over for the white man, alright?"

Both Frazier and Starnes are African-American.

"Certainly those are words that you don't soon forget," Frazier said. "But I'm a grown-up, and you move on and do what you have to do in life."

In an e-mail, Starnes acknowledged the reply to Frazier, saying, "It was a joke, albeit a crude one."

Oh, well, if it was all in good fun . . .

He said the focus should be on Amendment 47.

No doubt.

"Those e-mails had nothing to do with Local 7 as they were sent unsolicited to me by Mr. Frazier to my personal e-mail account," Starnes said. "I didn't mean any harm to Mr. Frazier."

Uh-huh. Starnes has other problems:

Julian Jay Cole, who wrote Amendment 47 with Frazier, on Monday filed a complaint with the state contending that Starnes has been practicing law without a license.

The complaint states that Starnes appeared as counsel for the union at least three times.

Starnes, who made $110,000 last year as the union's counsel, does not have a license to practice law in the state.

Starnes acknowledged he doesn't have a Colorado license, but said he was admitted to practice law in federal court. That would require he be licensed in another state. He would not say whether he has a license from another state.

He was admitted to the federal bar in U.S. District Court in Denver in July 2000. Labor cases are typically handled at that level.

Records show his law license in Washington, D.C., was suspended in 2003 for six months for making a false statement to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Committee on Admissions.

The committee also found he failed to provide competent representation, abandoned his clients, and failed to withdraw as their counsel after he began working full time for a federal agency and could no longer shoulder his duties to his private clients.

Records do not show his license was reinstated.

In short, a scumbag.